Profits Before People -- Again?
Bill Falzett
American Chronicle
February 2, 2007
California Governor Schwarzenegger’s health insurance proposal is a bad one. I suspect that it might get passed but it shouldn’t. It puts the load on providers, hospitals, small businesses, and the consumers once again. Guess who gets off the hook? That one is easy — the health insurance industry. Along with fossil fuel and pharmaceutical corporations, the health insurance bunch has enjoyed record profits and exorbitant executive salaries.
A recent health insurance CEO left his post with over $200 million in benefits. He hasn’t been the exception. There are 10 times as many administrative employees in the health insurance industry since the inception of managed care. The number of providers has remained relatively constant. That alone is a troubling statistic. What it says is that the health career is not seen as the desirable option it was years ago.
The United States is the only industrialized nation without universal health care. We rank very low relative to these other countries in life expectancy and quality of care according to recent studies. We continue to assume that health care is a business like any other. But, think about that for a moment — do you really want bean counters to determine your health care decisions and which medications you can take? Is your health a commodity to be managed by an administrator like deciding how many shoes the factory should make today?
An additional irony of the Governor’s plan is that big business leaders are beginning to get on board with a universal plan. A recent article in the AARP Bulletin discussed their change in thinking. Many in the auto industry now see the wisdom and utility of universal health care. Of course they do, it helps the bottom line. When profits are lag because the auto industry spends more on health insurance than they do on steel, universal care looks real good. Pardon my cynicism but look at the obvious obvious. One of the reasons that Japan can make a car that is more profitable — they have universal health care.
The Lewin Group was commissioned to do a study on a universal health plan proposed some years ago and revitalized last year by California State Senator Sheila Kuehl. It’s similar to a plan outlined by Barlett and Steele in their book, “Critical Condition”. This book is both an indictment of the health insurance industry and reasonable proposals for solutions to the crisis. The Lewin Group showed across-the-board savings for providers, hospitals, businesses, and people. We would save around 20% on administrative costs that ordinarily go to the over 600 health insurance corporations in the US by streamlining to a single payer. Medicare and the VA health system have shown that it can be done. In addition, with a universal health, single payer plan, the workers’ compensation problem gets reduced significantly.
Let’s put aside for a moment the issues of money, profits, and corporate bottom line. What does this country see as the right thing to do? What do you see as the right thing to do? Is it our collective will to see people — all people — taken care of with regard to health decisions? Are we — all of us in this country — our brothers’ keepers? Is membership in this country a ticket to affordable, quality health care or are you really on your own? In the final analysis, excessive health care costs today are a reflection of devotion to corporate greed and an unwillingness to apply empathy and responsibility in our dealings with each other. If people don’t have insurance they go to emergency rooms and we all pay anyway.
In order for people to feel a sense of security in their daily lives, do they really focus on international terrorism or global warming first? Perhaps we should, but I don’t see that as a psychologist here in Northern California. What I do see is that people worry about providing for themselves and their families. They worry about health coverage and paying the bill for the last doctor visit or operation. Over 50% of bankruptcies in our country are the result of health issues and costs. Real people suffer while we worry about whether to regulate an industry that sees your health as a bottom line issue. Is that the way you want it? I don’t.
If Governor Schwarzenegger and his bean counters want to improve health care and be responsive to people, I suggest they look at the Lewin Report and the book by Barlett and Steele as I recommended last year. Both sources have all the numbers and good alternatives for quality health care. The only hurdle they have to overcome now is the insurance lobby.
Bill Falzett is a community psychologist, medical provider, and a fair-trade, fiscal responsibility, Progressive Democrat.